Gurublog

February 21, 2012 7:10 pm 3 Comments

I don't know what it was like before, but if this is the new normal in Baghdad it must take some getting used to.

February 20, 2012 8:50 pm 3 Comments

Is it a beautiful game? Or one ugly with prejudice? Would you come out if you were a gay professional footballer? When will gay men feel comfortable in the crowd at a football match? And when will openly gay teenagers feel welcomed into school and local teams? These are just some of the questions they [...]

January 23, 2012 7:26 pm 12 Comments

Krishnan Guru-Murthy interviews Larry Summers, one of the most renowned economists in the world, the man who ran the US economic policy for Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

December 1, 2011 2:09 pm 14 Comments

I can now genuinely say that I have sung on stage before a paying audience with Gary Barlow. Hilarious.

November 22, 2011 1:45 pm 8 Comments

Democracy and press freedom campaigners are calling today Black Tuesday in reference to October 19th 1977 (called Black Wednesday - though rather different to the one in Britain) when the apartheid regime banned several newspapers and individuals in their assault on freedom of expression.

November 11, 2011 11:42 am 31 Comments

Is solar the right technology for Britain right now? And what is a government subsidy for? Those are the real questions provoked by the government's desire to cut payments (Feed in Tariffs) for people who put solar photovoltaic panels on their roofs to generate electricity. The solar industry in Britain is furious - saying jobs will be lost and businesses will go bust. But should public money be used to subsidise businesses or is it better spent on other measures to green the economy? These are tough choices.

October 22, 2011 8:23 am 13 Comments

"That man is a hero - whoever he is", said the man from the National Transitional Council. "There is no question of prosecuting anyone even if it was a deliberate assassination", said his colleague. The two men were explaining how Libya is answering the call to explain what happened to Colonel Gaddafi as best it can.

October 17, 2011 1:38 am 40 Comments

This probably won't come as a surprise but I'm not a big fan of camping. With the exception of a few nights in my friend's garden when we were 6, and a night in the Lake District in the cubs my experience of camping has been of there being no choice. Filming an Indian earthquake, the Bosnian war, Orangemen camped at Drumcree, a South African slum - that sort of thing. Unpleasant (if fascinating) experiences, on the whole. I'd rather be in a hotel. So I am full of admiration for people who camp on cold streets to protest. I just wish I knew what they wanted, then we could work out whether or not we agree with them.

October 9, 2011 8:42 pm 21 Comments

The fact David Cameron may not be Liam Fox's biggest fan is probably the least relevant fact in this story. The Prime Minister will not want to lose a scalp, and will not want to lose somebody popular with vast numbers of party members and especially those MPs on the right of the party. Downing Street must be hoping tomorrow's draft report has no other nasty surprises in it. But I rather suspect Liam Fox won't be doing television interviews over the next few hours. He is facing the House of Commons, and no doubt discussing the situation with the Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister. Here are some of the questions the public might like the answers to.

October 6, 2011 2:50 pm 15 Comments

The words were simply stunning. Archbishop Desmond Tutu's tirade against the ANC government rocks so much that we have assumed about post-apartheid South Africa. Comparing the ANC to Libya's Gaddafi and Egypt's Mubarak he slammed the party that delivered freedom to South Africa as worse than the old regime. At least you expected them to behave badly, he raged, adding "You, President Zuma and your government, do not represent me. I am warning you, as I warned the nationalists, one day we will pray for the defeat of the ANC government." It is a sense of anger and betrayal that chimes with much of what I found while filming for the new series of Unreported World (Friday, Channel 4 at 1930 and on 4OD).